UPDATE: Rockwell special election results in

ROCKWELL, Iowa – The results of a special election are in, and it looks like Larry Wentz will stay in place on the Rockwell city council as the Councilor-At-Large. He received 45% of the votes. Mark Lowe came in second with 22% of the vote. 196 people voted in this Rockwell special election.

EARLIER:

November is known as election month nationwide, but even in February, a small north Iowa town headed back to the polls today.

Rockwell had a re-election on Tuesday for an open city council position.

The position was originally filled by Dave Laudner who resigned from his position on Nov. 21st, 2013.

Following his resignation, the position was filled by Councilman Larry Wentz as he was runner up in the 2013 elections.

The second runner-up, Lee Gossweiler, was not thrilled by this decision and moved forward on a grassroots effort to have a re-election for the position.

Members of the community started a petition for the election since last race was so close between Wentz and Gossweiler and after getting enough signatures, the re-election was green-lighted.

Mary Best, a chair councilperson for the Rockwell election committee, said that this petition has caused quite a bit of commotion in town.

“The people in Rockwell are upset to think that we’re doing this,” she said, “they’ve even said, ‘look what it’s costing us’, but it’s illegal, so it has to happen as long as he’s got these people signing.”

She says that because of the controversy of the re-election, it could bring more people out to the polls to voice their opinions.

Best said that they were consistently busy throughout the morning at the polling location and says it’s all thanks to Gossweiler getting the community “riled up a little bit.”